The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
LUR used as guiding document for town recommendations
By Mark Reaman
Because three of the four partners in the land at Brush Creek Road and Highway 135 have to sign off on a plan for affordable housing as proposed by Gatesco, Inc. and its idea for The Corner at Brush Creek, the town of Crested Butte is attempting to organize a meeting of the four entities.
A firm date has not yet been set but town manager Dara MacDonald said there is interest for such a meeting from all the parties to the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that includes the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, Gunnison County, and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
“The applicant voluntarily said they wouldn’t proceed to submitting an application for preliminary plan until three of the four MOA partners agreed to support a project,” MacDonald told the council at the August 7 Town Council meeting. “Lots of conditions in the sketch plan were kicked down the road to preliminary plan.”
Councilman Kent Cowherd said he had informed the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council that affordable housing is desired on that property “but the overwhelming impacts of the current proposal outweigh the benefits.”
Councilman Will Dujardin said he understood some of the points made by the county in response to the town’s stated concerns. He said he was not necessarily on board with the latest number of 112 units floated by Crested Butte to the county, feeling that number was not enough for the property. He also expressed some disappointment that the whole council was not part of the conversation that came to the 112-unit number.
Cowherd said the end of the county’s sketch plan review moved quicker than anticipated so the councilmembers and staff appointed to watch the process reacted quickly and before a council meeting was scheduled.
“We tried to apply a rationale and not be arbitrary with our figure and other concerns,” explained Cowherd. “We used the county LUR [Land Use Resolution] as the guiding document for our response.”
“If you take away the five acres that we requested be used for intercept parking, the density on the rest of the parcel is similar to what is proposed,” added MacDonald.
“The 112 seems a reasonable number with the parking and hopefully an athletic field out there,” added mayor Jim Schmidt.
Gatesco representative John O’Neal told the council the development team was working on making the county-imposed 180-unit maximum density pencil out.
